IT’S been a year of money talk and the credit crunch. So, right at the end of 2008, perhaps it’s fitting that the subject of filthy lucre has risen its ugly head once again.

On a day when the sold-out signs will be going up at the Arms Park, have the Blues missed out by not switching the game with their bitter rivals, the Ospreys, to the Millennium Stadium?

Bragging rights are at stake – the unofficial title of kings of Wales being one of them for two go-ahead regions – and no less than 26 international players are in the two starting line-ups.

But the Blues candidly admit they did not address the matter of switching the Magners League game next door.

Yet the success of Harlequins’ bold decision to move their Guinness Premiership Christmas fixture with Leicester Tigers to Twickenham has led to Blues officials wondering: “What if?”

It’s not as if the Blues weren’t aware of the possibilities, having hosted hugely successful matches with Leinster, Leicester and, most recently, Gloucester next door.

What’s more, the deal that was struck between Cardiff RFC and then-WRU chairman Glanmor Griffiths to allow the construction of the Millennium Stadium, gives the Blues the right to hold matches at the 74,000-capacity stadium.

The Blues attracted a 27,114 crowd against Gloucester to watch them blow away the West Country giants away 37-24 in October’s Heineken Cup tie.

And I have no doubt they would have surpassed that figure for this Magners League humdinger.

If the huge East-West showdown and – let’s not beat around the bush here, there’s not a lot of love between the Blues and Ospreys – had been promoted heavily and priced properly, I reckon they would have got in excess of 35,000.

There’s another issue to consider as well, namely the Blues’ move to the Welsh capital’s newest stadium next season in a ground share with Cardiff City.

Their plush new home will have a capacity around the 27,000 mark so the Ospreys showdown could have been a taste of what Blues bosses hope to see in the future.

You never know, the floaters needed on a more regular basis next season might have been lured along to become committed Blues fans.

Of course, there’s also the not-so insignificant matter of the Blues and Ospreys being Wales’ two best teams.

Should the pair of them clash – and it’s a possibility – in the quarter-finals of this season’s Heineken Cup, we’d be talking of a 50,000-plus crowd.

Sure, it would have cost the Blues money to negotiate a deal with Millennium Stadium power-brokers to have the laying of a pitch for the Six Nations brought forward by a few days.

But, where there’s a will, there’s a way...

Speculate to accumulate, they say. So, too, striking while the iron is hot. The rush for tickets for today’s shoot-out – the Arms Park holds just under 13,000 – might have caught Blues officials off guard and made it too late for them to act.

But coach David Young echoed chief executive Robert Norster when he said: “It’s not something we have talked about.

“It’s quite ironic.

“We would get criticised if we had moved it and we get criticised for not moving it.

“I don’t think a pitch is even down at the Millennium Stadium.”

Young was alluding to the fact the Blues have had unjustified stick from some of their supporters for switching Heineken games with Gloucester and Leicester and a Magners clash with Leinster to the Millennium.

But those diehards aren’t happy either with sharing with Cardiff City, so Blues bigwigs are quite literally damned if they do and damned if they don’t.

Unlike the Scarlets’ West Wales derby with the Ospreys on Saturday, all the big hitters, barring injury casualties such as Shane Williams and Jamie Roberts, are in action today.

That wasn’t the case at Parc y Scarlets with Wales outside-half Stephen Jones rested from the only competition the Scarlets can win this season.

In my book, it made far more sense to stand Jones down for meaningless Heineken Cup matches with Stade Francais and Harlequins over the next few weeks than keeping him out of a white-hot derby.

Contrast the attitude of the Scarlets with that of the Ospreys.

Welsh rugby’s big spenders have surprised Young by handing Grand Slam hero Mike Phillips his second start in five days after nine months out recovering from a major knee injury and demoted James Hook to the replacements’ bench.

It all adds to my argument that it’s going to be real trench warfare at the Arms Park.

The Ospreys go top of the Magners table if they win, while a Blues success would put them back in the title race.

Blues captain Paul Tito agreed: “It’s a massive game, one of the biggest in the Magners League, a sell-out and it’s against the Ospreys.”

Young stressed: “We have got to have a big performance and bring our best game to the table.

“There’s great competition across the board, with people like Andy Powell, Ryan Jones Martyn Williams, Holah, Tito, Alun Wyn Jones, Gethin Jenkins, Adam Jones, Jason Spice and Phillips up against each other.

“It’s certainly one for the neutral.”

Which is precisely the reason why it should have been switched to the Millennium Stadium.